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Graphic Medicine @ UND

Read along and discuss graphic medicine with UND!

Session 1

Discussion sessions will be held on the following dates:

  • Wednesday, February 26th at 9 a.m. (lead by Zeineb Yousif)
  • Thursday, February 27th at 12 p.m. (lead by Justin Wigard)

Registration is closed.

Featured Comics

Session 1 will cover the following comics from Menopause: a comic treatment:

  • Introduction (p. 01)
  • Menopause (p. 05)
  • Menopositive! (p. 11)
  • #crockpotrunner (p. 17)
  • When My Biological Clock Stopped Ticking (p. 26)
  • Burning Up (p. 32)
  • Desertification (p. 36)

The chapters in bold will be specifically featured in our discussion. If you don't have a chance to read all of the comics from this section, focus on those three for the discussion. (But feel free to also discuss others from this section if you would like!)

Discussion Questions

Discussion questions are suggestions to start and guide the conversation. The topics may vary based on attendee questions and comments.

Menopositive!

  1. Is the characterization of menopause as a "change-back" different than other comics' framing of menopause? How so, or, how not?
  2. Lynda Barry uses a limited palette of primary colors throughout this comic, moving from single-color pages to a mix of all three. How does this reinforce her point abut the connection between her joy in observation as a child and as a post-menopausal woman?

#crockpotrunner

  1. There's no explicit mention of menopause in this -- how do we read its inclusion? As an indication that for some people it doesn't make a meaningful change? In an effort to normalize it?

Burning Up

  1. How does society want us to feel about menopause vs. how do the people you know feel about it?

  2. The author's theory that hot flashes signified her anxieties burning away "made [her] ridiculously happy!!!" How can reshaping our internal narratives about bodily changes – through humor, positive framing, or other means – impact our experience of those changes?